Archive for the ‘North East Motorsports Museum’ tag

One of the most active racing history organizations east of the Mississippi is the New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame, whose annual inductees are commonly announced in this space. The problem is, there’s no actual Hall, aside from the standing-room-only induction ceremony it conducts each winter in Connecticut. That, happily, is in the process of changing.

When it opens at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the North East Motor Sports Museum will provide New England’s racing heroes with the permanent public shrine they’ve never had. The planned museum is a joint venture between Speedway Motorsports Inc. of Concord, North Carolina, which operates the superspeedway, and the Racing History Preservation Group. The latter team is a gathering of New Englanders, some of them NEAR inductees, which will actually run the museum. It’s led by Dick Berggren, who retired from his longtime role as a FOX Sports race analyst to take on the project. Others include journalist Bones Bourcier, Boston racing historian and publisher Joe Freeman, longtime race promoter Russ Conway and NASCAR star Ron Bouchard, who has provided the museum with a temporary home at one of his auto dealerships in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. To raise money, the museum’s supporters are selling memberships and inscribed memorial bricks, and are actively soliciting donations of everything from race cars and motorcycles to memorabilia. For more information, visit NEMSmuseum.com.

For all of its deep, nearly century-long history, New England has never had a major motorsports museum of its own. The process of changing that has just begun. New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be home for a new North East Motorsports Museum, to be located on the track complex along state Route 106 outside Loudon.

The partners are NMHS executive vice president and general manager Jerry Gappens, plus longtime motorsports journalist and TV analyst Dick Berggren and retired NASCAR star Ricky Craven, a Maine native. Berggren is president of the Racing History Preservation Group, which will raise money for the envisioned 20,000-square-foot museum. At the announcement, the Walter Beletsky sprint car owned by Troy Bissoneau was on display. From left are Berggren, plus race enthusiasts/historians Ken Smith, R. A. Silvia, Pete Von Sneidern (holding the building’s architectural rendering), Dick Batchelder, Ric Mariscal, Ricky Craven, and Lew Boyd. For information on making a tax-advantageous donation, write the RHPG at 7 Bayview Road, Ipswich, Massachusetts 01938 or visit NEMSMuseum.com.